Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 24, 2017)
83/50 JOURNALIST’S TORSO FOUND IN SUBMARINE DEATH MYSTERY CHARLOTTESVILLE THROWS TARP OVER STATUE ISSUE RECORDS/5A NATION/7A THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 2017 141st Year, No. 223 One dollar WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD Mega-dairy owner caught in prostitution sting By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian The owner of Boardman’s Lost Valley Farm mega-dairy was among 10 people police arrested in a Tri-Cities prostitution sting. Greg te Velde, 59, of Tipton, California, faces the misdemeanor charge of patronizing a prostitute as well as methamphetamine posses- sion, according to information from the website for the Benton County Jail, Kennewick. He went into the jail on the charges at 1:36 a.m. on Aug. 19 and is free on bail. A cellphone for te Velde would not accept messages. Travis Love, general manager with Lost Valley Farm, said in a written statement “we take these allegations seriously. It is our policy to not comment on personnel matters, pending court proceedings.” Washington newspapers reported Richland police teamed up with Kennewick police and the Benton County Sheriff’s Offi ce to run the undercover operation Aug. 17-18 in Richland that netted six men and four women for prostitution. An undercover female offi cer solicited the men, and an undercover male offi cer solicited the women. Te Velde is also a defendant in STANFIELD a $1.4 million lawsuit. Laser Land Leveling Inc., of Nampa, Idaho, fi led the complaint in June in Morrow County against te Velde and four companies for failing to pay for construction work. And an Oregon State Police trooper on May 23 in Hood River County gave te Velde a ticket for careless driving contributing to an accident. Circuit Court records show a judge convicted him on the offense on July 24. He has yet to pay the $450 penalty. Richland police Lt. Chris Lee did not return a call by deadline Wednesday. The sting also caught Mark Allen Phillips of Elgin. Phillips said he didn’t want to comment. ——— Contact Phil Wright at pwright@eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0833. HEPPNER Residents to see hike in school district taxes Offi cials say increase a result of error in levy the past few years By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN East Oregonian People living in the Stanfi eld School District will see a spike in their next prop- erty tax bill, due to what the district claims is an accounting error. The additional tax requirement is in response to the district’s error in under- levying taxes to cover a bond measure passed nearly 20 years ago to pay for a new elementary school. A fl yer sent out to all residents of the district notes that during the 2015-2016 fi scal audit, conducted in early 2017, the district was notifi ed by its auditing fi rm that it had not been collecting enough property taxes to cover the bond payments by 2019, when the bond is set to expire. Superintendent Shelley Liscom wrote in the fl yer that was delivered last week that the district would need to increase the percentage it levies for the bond for the 2017-2018 fi scal year. The letter stated that the change was not an “increase,” but a refl ection of what residents should have been paying in property taxes for the past two years. Paul Chalmers, the tax assessor for Umatilla County, said on Tuesday he had already received several phone calls about the problem, and made clear that his depart- ment does not set the rate for bonds and is not at fault for the error. “The assessment and taxation depart- ment gets certifi ed forms for every taxing district in Umatilla County,” he said. “What they certify to us is what we put on the tax rolls.” Chalmers said he was made aware of the problem more than a month ago and advised Liscom to send a notice to taxpayers. He noted that for the upcoming fi scal year, Stanfi eld will levy $792,553 for bond payments. Last year, they levied $356,425. Liscom said the error was discovered See TAXES/8A Staff photo by E.J. Harris Kevin Murray, Laurie Murray Wood, Ann Murray and John Murray are all pharmacists. Ann and John own Murray Drugs. Family medicine Murrays carry on local lineage of pharmaceutical profession By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN East Oregonian Like much of Heppner, Murray Drugs Inc. looks like it was plucked from the past. People chat with each other as they browse cards and household items. The pharmacists greet customers with a smile as they come in. Outside, people can sit at tables and enjoy coffee as old country songs pour out of the speakers at the grocery store across the street. But despite maintaining an old-fashioned charm and homey “We’ve had to stand up for ourselves and fi ght a little. That’s how we survive.” — John Murray, owner of Murray Drugs Inc. atmosphere, the Murrays have had to stay current in order to maintain the family pharmacy. “We’ve had to stand up for ourselves and fi ght a little,” said John Murray. “That’s how we survive.” John and his wife Ann have owned Murray Drugs, Inc., which has locations in Heppner and Condon, since 1990. But the Murray family had fi lled prescriptions for Morrow, Gilliam and Wheeler counties for a lot longer. In 1959, John’s parents, Rod and Meg Murray, started the pharmacy. At one time, they also had stores in Arlington and Prairie City. John and Ann are both pharmacists, as are John’s brother and sister. Three of John and Ann’s fi ve children also followed suit, with two working as licensed pharma- cists and one in pharmacy school. The Murrays are something of an anomaly in the days of phar- macy giants like Walgreens and CVS. They do their own contract regulations and insurance, and have been pushing back against big insurance companies and mail-order pharmacies for years. “I’ve gone to several meetings in Salem to create a level playing fi eld,” said Ann. One of the biggest challenges, See MURRAY/8A Google searches for ‘my eyes hurt’ spike after eclipse No cases of ocular damage reported in Hermiston By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian Staff photo by E.J. Harris Dave Drotzmann performs an annual eye exam on Abbie Ditton of Hermiston on Wednesday in Hermiston. The warnings were stark: Stare directly at the solar eclipse without special safety glasses and you could permanently damage your vision. With eclipse glasses in short supply, however, there were inevitably some who decided a few peeks couldn’t hurt. They may have been same people who caused a large spike in Google searches for “my eyes hurt” on Monday after- noon. The good news, according to Dr. David Drotzmann of Lifetime Vision Source in Hermiston, is that by now people would know if their gamble had caused damage to their eyes. “They would have symptoms by now,” he said. Drotzmann said some people may have experienced superfi cial damage to their eyes, causing a scratchy or burning sensation the fi rst day or two until swelling in their eye went down. If symptoms last more than 48 hours they should see an eye doctor. A more alarming symptom, he said, would be a blank spot appearing in the center of a person’s vision. To test for that, people can stare at a word on a sign and close one eye, then the other, to see if any of the letters are obscured by a blank spot in their vision. “That’s the bad one,” Drotzmann said. The spots are signs that the sun See EYES/8A